Jubilees

A retelling of Genesis–Exodus divided into jubilee periods, canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox collection.

Jubilees retells Genesis and Exodus in jubilee periods of forty-nine years. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church receives it as revelation given to Moses on Sinai. The Ethiopian Orthodox collection receives it as canonical. Hebrew fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the book was copied in Second Temple Judaism. It is not in the Protestant sixty-six, the Catholic canon defined at Trent, or most Orthodox closed canons, and it is not a Tanakh book. Qumran fragments are existence evidence. The Ethiopian list is the canonical-status evidence. The two facts can both be true.

Hebrew fragments survive among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Not in Protestant, Catholic, or most Orthodox closed canons.

Date

Ethiopian Orthodox tradition: given at Sinai; copies known from the 2nd century BCE (Qumran)

Confidence

low

Languages

Hebrew, Ge'ez

Traditional authorship

Moses

Authorship note

Revealed to Moses on Sinai through the Angel of the Presence (Ethiopian Orthodox Church)

• 4Q216–4Q224 · Qumran Jubilees

  2nd–1st centuries BCE (medium confidence) · Hebrew · Hebrew fragments

  Hebrew fragments of Jubilees from the Qumran caves, including the Cave 4 series 4Q216 through 4Q224 and earlier cave copies, show that the book was being copied in Judea in the second and first centuries BCE. The complete book survives in Ge'ez, not in those fragments. Qumran evidence is Second Temple Jewish copying. The Ethiopian Orthodox list later receives Jubilees as canonical. Western and rabbinic canons do not. The fragments and the Ge'ez book are two stages of preservation, not one manuscript.

• Ge'ez biblical copies · Ethiopic Enoch and Jubilees

  Medieval and early modern Ge'ez copies of older books · Ge'ez · Complete Ge'ez Jubilees

  The complete books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees survive in Ge'ez. The manuscripts used by modern editors are medieval and early modern copies, centuries later than the Qumran fragments, but they preserve books the Hebrew fragments only sample. Ethiopian Orthodox churches copied them as part of the broader biblical collection. A Ge'ez codex is existence evidence for the full text. It is not a Western canon decree, and it does not erase the fact that most other Christian lists never adopted these two books.

• preserves

  Qumran copyists

  Jubilees is not a book of the Tanakh. Josephus, near the end of the first century, describes twenty-two Jewish books his people trust and sets later writings in a lower rank. The later rabbinic Bible, counted as twenty-four books, likewise leaves Jubilees outside Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Hebrew fragments from Qumran show Jubilees being copied in the Second Temple period as a retelling of Genesis and Exodus. The rabbis did not include it in the Tanakh. Jewish copying or quotation, where it exists, is reception. It is not the same fact as a place in the Hebrew canon, and it is not a Christian council’s decision.

• lists noncanonical

  Greek and Latin lists

  Early catholic lists do not receive Jubilees as Scripture. Athanasius’s Old Testament follows the shorter Hebrew count and does not name Jubilees. The book’s later canonical home in this dataset is the Ethiopian Orthodox collection, which preserved the full text in Ge'ez.

• ProtestantRelated literature

  Not among the Protestant 66.

• CatholicRelated literature

  Not a Catholic deuterocanonical book.

• OrthodoxRelated literature

  Not in the typical Eastern closed Old Testament.

• EthiopianCanonical

  Jubilees is part of the Ethiopian Orthodox biblical collection.

• TanakhNot applicable

  Not part of the Tanakh.

• LXXRelated literature

  Not a standard Septuagint book.

• Early ChristianRelated literature

  Known in some Eastern Christian milieux; not a universal early canon book.

• Second TempleRelated literature

  Hebrew Jubilees fragments survive among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

• 1947–1956 CE · Manuscript · Qumran, Judean Desert

  Dead Sea Scrolls come to light

  Caves near Qumran yielded Jewish manuscripts, including Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch such as 4Q201.

  From 1947 to 1956, caves near Qumran yielded Jewish manuscripts of the Second Temple period, including Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch such as 4Q201. The find shows that Enochic books were being copied in Judea in the second century BCE, long before the Ge'ez manuscripts that preserve the book in full. Discovery is manuscript evidence. The scrolls are not a Christian canon list, and they are not a table of contents for the Ethiopian, Catholic, or Protestant Bibles. They belong with the Second Temple column and with the existence of 1 Enoch. Canonical status for each later tradition stays on that tradition’s own witnesses.

  Why it matters. Shows that Enochic books were copied in Second Temple Judaism. Discovery is not a statement that the scrolls were a Christian canon list.

  Source: 4Q201 is an Aramaic 1 Enoch manuscript from Qumran Cave 4, commonly dated to the second century BCE.

• Strong parallel · Jubilees narrative ↔ Genesis

  High confidence — strong primary or manuscript support.

  Jubilees retells Genesis and the opening of Exodus in jubilee periods. The parallel is literary and sustained. Jubilees is not a manuscript of Genesis.

1. 1947–1956 CE — Dead Sea Scrolls come to light

• Westminster Confession I.2–3 names the 66-book Protestant canon and says the books commonly called Apocrypha are not of divine inspiration and are not part of the canon of Scripture.
• Council of Trent, Session IV (8 April 1546), lists the Catholic canonical books including the deuterocanonical writings received in the Vulgate.
• Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), lists 22 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books and names some other writings as useful but not canonical.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church publishes an 81-book list that includes 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• Josephus, Against Apion 1.8, speaks of 22 Jewish books and distinguishes later writings as not equally trusted.
• Brenton’s public-domain Septuagint translation includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, the Additions, and Maccabees as part of the Greek Old Testament corpus.
• 4Q201 is an Aramaic 1 Enoch manuscript from Qumran Cave 4, commonly dated to the second century BCE.
• Qumran caves preserved Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek fragments of biblical and parabiblical books, published in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert.
• Ge'ez manuscripts preserve the complete Ethiopian biblical books, including 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• Genesis is the first book of the Torah and is canonical across Jewish and historic Christian canons.